← Back to the rankingHelsingin Suomalainen Yhteiskoulu
Helsinki, Finland · est. 1886 · Private
Illustration · Helsinki
A private contract school (yksityinen sopimuskoulu) in Etelä-Haaga, Helsinki, founded in 1886 under Lucina Hagman; "Founded in 1886, SYK is the oldest coeducational school in Finland." Since 1972 it has occupied its own building on Isonnevantie. It is a unified school from grade 3 to grade 12: basic education (perusopetus) grades 3-9, the Finnish-language upper secondary school (lukio) and the English-language IB section, started in 1990. The school sets its own pedagogical goals and curriculum but follows the national core curriculum. The school currently has about 1250 pupils, about 500 of them in upper secondary. A distinctive feature is early French, German or Russian from grade 3: the school is the city-wide centre for these languages. Upper secondary language lines: A-French, A-German, A-Russian and the short languages line. The school states that its ylioppilastutkinto results are among the best in the country every year and that the average IB score over the past 10 graduating classes is about 37 out of 45. Language of instruction stated by the school: basic education and the national lukio in Finnish, the IB section in English.
Key facts
Programmes
IB · DP · National programme
Languages of instruction
Finnish, English
Languages taught
Swedish, French, German, Russian
Class size
"At SYK IB teachers know each student and group sizes are relatively small."
About the fees Tuition is free: the school "ei peri oppilasmaksuja" (charges no pupil fees), and for the IB section "Students attend at no cost", as the school receives most of its funding through the government.
Admissions Grade 3 admits about 100 pupils a year, chosen by the principal on the basis of a Finnish-language aptitude test; applicants are second-graders choosing French, German or Russian as their A-language; children who already know that language are not admitted to those groups. Grades 4-9 only for vacant places; there is no regular intake to grade 7. Upper secondary (120 places) through the joint application yhteishaku by leaving-certificate grade average and the school's questionnaire. IB section: "Normally students are accepted for preparatory year (10th grade)" (quota of 30 places), occasionally directly to IB1 if places are free; applicants from Finnish schools and applicants with international reports living in Finland take an entrance exam (mathematics, a written task in English and another in English or Finnish), maximum 15 points together with GPA. The school admits foreigners: it welcomes applications from applicants currently living abroad, with "No entrance exam for international applicants who are applying from abroad"; decisions rest on documents and the need for a study place in Helsinki. Conditions: "we cannot admit underaged students who wish to move to Finland on their own without their families"; a legal guardian in Finland is required and there is no boarding. No Finnish or Swedish is required, but "SYK cannot admit students who speak English only" since the IB requires at least two languages.
Stages and year groups Grades grades 3-9 (perusopetus), grades 10-12 (lukio), IB section: preparatory year and IB Diploma Programme (IB1-IB2). Basic education from grade 3 to grade 9 under the Finnish national curriculum with an early A-language (French, German or Russian). Upper secondary from grade 10 to grade 12 in two variants: Finnish-language language lines towards the ylioppilastutkinto and the English-language IB section, started in 1990: a preparatory year (grade 10), then IB1 and IB2 towards the IB Diploma, examinations in May. The school states that both tracks give general university entry qualification. No other IB programmes (PYP, MYP, CP) appear on the website.
Address Isonnevantie 8, 00320 Helsinki
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
IB · DP · authorised programmePASCH · takes part in the programmeThe IB register lists the Diploma Programme at the school, offered in the upper grades alongside the Finnish upper secondary programme and the ylioppilastutkinto matriculation exam. The school is listed in the PASCH network as a school offering the German language diploma DSD.
school is in an official registryconfirmed by a school document, by membership or by taking part in a networkclaimed by the school, no confirmation, not counted in the scoreGuide to all organisations → What stands behind each entry
IBInternational Baccalaureate
A Swiss non-profit, working since 1968. Its programmes are among the most widely recognised school programmes in the world. Authorisation is granted stage by stage, so a school with the final stage does not necessarily run the younger ones; which stages this school holds is set out in the line below.
What the badge means for this school. The school is allowed to run this programme and to award its certificate. This is a confirmation of the programme, not a judgement on the school as a whole. The entry stands in the organisation's public register - anyone can check it. At this school: DP (ages 16-19). DP is the final stage, ages 16 to 19: six subjects plus a compulsory core of theory of knowledge, an extended essay and CAS. The diploma is accepted by universities all over the world, and in a number of countries it counts for admission on the same footing as the local leaving certificate.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →PASCHSchools: Partners for the Future, an initiative of the German foreign ministry
More than two thousand schools in about 120 countries. A school cannot apply for itself: participants are chosen by German agencies in agreement with the embassy. Very different schools sit under one mark - full German schools abroad, and ordinary national schools that simply teach German well.
What the badge means for this school. The school belongs to a German support programme. By itself the mark means neither a German curriculum nor the right to award a German certificate: of the two thousand PASCH schools, about seventeen hundred hold no such right. Look for a ZfA status next to it - that is the one that is about this. The entry is confirmed in the organisation's open directory.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →National programme
The state school programme of the country the school stands in: it is set by that country's ministry of education, which also licenses the school and awards the leaving certificate. That certificate is used for entry to local universities, and abroad it is matched to the local one.
What this means for this school. This entry does not count towards the score, and that is deliberate. Every lawful school in a country works to the national programme, so on its own it tells one school apart from no other - unlike the French, German or Russian programmes, which are carried abroad and confirmed by the register of their organisation. We show it because a parent needs to know what programme their child is taught and what certificate the child will get. Counting it would lift the whole ranking at once and still tell nobody apart.
Exams and destinations from the school's official website
Average IB score
37 (world average 30.88)
Exam results "The average score of our graduates from the past 10 graduating classes is circa 37 out of 45", against a worldwide average of around 30. No year-by-year data or pass rate is given. The school calls its ylioppilastutkinto results among the best in the country every year, without figures.
Where leavers go: University of Oxford · University of Cambridge · London School of Economics (LSE) · Imperial College London · Karolinska Institutet · Harvard University · Princeton University · Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) · Stanford University · Yale University · Duke University · University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
and others, 14 universities in the school's list in all"Of our IB graduates virtually everyone plans to pursue studies at university level in Finland and abroad." The list refers to IB graduates.
Facilities from the school's official website
✓Swimming pool
✓Sports hall
✓Laboratories
·Theatre or assembly hallnot stated on the website
✓Library
✓Catering
·School transportnot stated on the website
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Also on site: Art studio
Campus: Own building of 1972 designed by Heikki and Kaija Siren in Etelä-Haaga: art and music rooms, computer rooms, textile work rooms, science laboratories, a library, a language laboratory, a gymnasium and its own swimming pool (uimahalli); the SYKE school restaurant and a music school on site.
Clubs and activities: Debate club · Choir · Arts club · Trading club · Book club · Math club · MUN · TedEd club · Environmental club · Chess club
Teaching staff from the school's official website
·Teachers listed by namenot published
✓Teacher qualifications
✓Number of teachers90
✓Students per teacher or class sizein the key facts above
What the listings show: "All staff are experienced and qualified teachers with university degrees and/or teaching certificates"; IB teachers hold Master's degrees, some hold doctorates.
The contacts page lists 90 teachers, five of them teaching German. IB teachers have 30 years of experience with the programme; many have been IB examiners or IB workshop leaders, some have written textbooks.
Safety and wellbeing from the school's official website
·CCTVnot stated on the website
·Security staffnot stated on the website
·Access controlnot stated on the website
✓Nurse or medical room
✓Counsellor
·Child protection policynot stated on the website
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
·Anti-bullying policynot stated on the website
Staff include school nurses (two in basic education, one in upper secondary), a psychologist and a curator (social worker); doctor appointments are booked through a nurse. The IB section has a guidance and careers counsellor, a special education teacher, a school social worker, a school psychologist and a school nurse.
Reviews
No reviews yet. The community rating counts towards the score once a school has five verified reviews - until then we do not show a zero, so as not to mislead.
Criteria breakdown criterion weight in brackets
Academics and programmes (16%)82 Community rating (16%)no dataparent reviews are needed: the criterion switches on at the fifth verified one Exams and destinations (12%) scored on disclosed data80 Safety and wellbeing (12%) scored on disclosed data65 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)85 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data70 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data85 Clubs and activities (8%) scored on disclosed data78 "Scored on disclosed data" stands where we count only what the school has written about itself on its own site: exams and destinations, safety and wellbeing, teaching staff, facilities, clubs and activities. A low score here means the school does not write about this, not that the school does not have it: a school with good security and a sparse site will score low. A school can fill in its profile, and the score will be counted again.
The score is counted from 8 of the 9 criteria.Only those with checkable data count: programmes and accreditations from official registers, the fee from a published price list. Where it says "scored on the median", the school has no data and the middle of the list is put in its place, so that a gap gives no advantage. Admissions, teaching staff and reviews come in as their data arrives.
The full methodology → Similar schools in the country